Our Team

TOMOCEO

Tomo started his career in 2002 at cyber communications inc., one of the largest internet ad companies, where he deepened his knowledge of the internet business.

After that, he was transferred to CGM Marketing Inc., a subsidiary of Digital Garage, where he was in charge of product marketing. Due to his experiences at CGM in such areas as conducting product development, localization of Twitter in Japan, and negotiations with various media rep/ad agencies, he has extensively accumulated know-how and knowledge in the area of social media.

In 2009, he was transferred to DENTSU (www.dentsu.com/about), the world's largest ad agency, where he was in charge of advising clients such as Facebook, Twitter, and Apple on their growth in Japan. He also has strong connections in the media and content industries including publishers, broadcasters, and animation companies.

With his overwhelming experience in social media and enthusiasm for Japanese culture, Tomo founded Tokyo Otaku Mode in March 2011, where he is currently the CEO.

PAJICOO

Starting in 2003, Paji worked as an editor and writer for a production company that makes strategy guides for games. He worked on more than 30 titles, including "Final Fantasy" and "Sakatsuku."

After that, he launched approximately 30 web services on his own, including the Twitter-related service "Follow7" and "Kakiokosi.com." Both were successfully bought out. Through these experiences, he has acquired considerable knowledge and know-how of html coding and css programming.

In November 2009, he developed and launched a real-time Q&A service called "Q&A Now." After 2 years, he successfully sold the business to Japan's largest public Q&A service provider.

Paji is a serial entrepreneur with a plethora of experience and knowledge in web services. He is very familiar with how to launch and operate new services, and how to engage users. Currently, he acts as the COO of Tokyo Otaku Mode.

MASHCTO

Mash started his career in 2004 as an engineer at Hikaku.com (www.hikaku.com), a well known comparison site for services and goods. He was appointed as head of the tech division in 2005, where he developed over 20 new services. When Hikaku went public (IPO) in 2006 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the company's network and infrastructure areas were added to his responsibilities. During his time at Hikaku, he led a team of about 20 engineers and developed commonly used architecture within the company.

In 2008, he joined SBI Robo, a joint venture of SBI holdings and Fast Search & Transfer, which is now a group of Microsoft. As manager of the tech division, he built the architecture of their mobile products with ground designing and coding.

He established his own company in 2009 and launched a Twitter client service for mobile, which he developed himself, including planning, coding, and front and back-end systems. The service now has over 300K users and 140M pageviews per month.

Mash is a highly experienced engineer and currently acts as the CTO of Tokyo Otaku Mode.

NAOCFO

Nao started his career at Merrill Lynch as an investment banker in 2000. He specialized in global offering and M&A in the Media/Technology industries. His selected transactions, including the global IPO of Dentsu, the world's largest ad agency, and Sony’s Convertible Bonds, amount to $3B.

In 2006, he joined GaiaX, an internet startup in Tokyo focused on B2B in the social media and social app areas, as the CFO. During his time at GaiaX, he reformed and rebuilt the company by conducting M&A and capital transactions including self-TOB. He also worked on overseas business development and established a subsidiary in Singapore and the Philippines.

Nao has ample experience in internet startups, finance, and international deployment. He currently acts as the CFO of Tokyo Otaku Mode.

Our Advisors

Joichi Ito

Joichi Ito, an advisor of Tokyo Otaku Mode, is currently the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, co-founder of Digital Garage, and member of the board of directors of the Knight Foundation, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, New York Times Company, and the Mozilla Foundation.

In 2008, he was recognized as one of the “25 Most Influential People on the Web” by U.S. Businessweek. In 2011, he was selected by Nikkei Business as one of the "100 Most Influential People in Japan," and by Foreign Policy magazine as one of the "100 Top Thinkers in the World." His history of investment and support in internet business include Twitter, Flickr, Last.fm, Kickstarter, and more.

Andy Miller

Andy Miller, an advisor of Tokyo Otaku Mode, is currently the President and Chief Operating Officer at Leap Motion as well as a partner of Highland Capital Partner. He worked alongside Steve Jobs as the Vice President of Mobile Advertising iAd of Apple, was the CEO and Co-Founder of Quattro Wireless, and SVP Bus Dev of m-Qube/Verisign.

Satoru Matsumoto

The Association of Japanese Animations Executive Director, Secretary General

Began working for Bandai in 1970. Performed planning and design of toys and figures centered on anime such as Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam. He went on to take command of developing the Gunpla series. As general director of toy development, he developed toys intended for young boys. His experience also includes being the senior executive manager of the hobby division and manager of a factory in Shizuoka (currently the Bandai Hobby Center).

In 1994, Matsumoto was inaugurated onto the board of directors of the anime production company Sunrise when it became a subsidiary of Bandai Group. He then worked on the planning of many anime including Mobile Fighter G Gundam, InuYasha, and Gundam SEED. He also unified the licensing business inside and outside Japan through marketing programs overseas and managing the Chinese production studio Shinsen. During this time, he also acted as representative director of Sunrise Music Publishing and Sunrise Interactive.

In 2002, he started up the anime distribution company Bandai Channel as its representative director and succeeded in making the business of anime-exclusive distribution sites widely known. In 2009, he had a concurrent position in the planning and selling of anime packages as the executive vice-president of Bandai Visual. In July 2012, he was inaugurated as the executive director and secretary general of The Association of Japanese Animations, where he manages an industry organized of 61 anime production companies and associated companies. He also authored a book on the development of Gunpla called Our Gundam Business (published by Nikkei Shimbun Publishing). In addition to his many accomplishments, he is also active in many other areas including contributing news articles and holding seminars.